English 
搜索
Hebei Lansheng Biotech Co., Ltd. ShangHai Yuelian Biotech Co., Ltd.

Latin American Fertilizer - ApexBrasil promotes less import dependencyqrcode

Feb. 4, 2025

Favorites Print
Forward
Feb. 4, 2025

Reducing foreign dependency on fertilizers by attracting investments to the sector was the goal of the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) at the Fertilizer Latino Americano 2025. 


The event was held in late January in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and attended by AgroPages.


The Agency coordinated with strategic sector partners to assist potential international investors in Brazil at its stand during the four-day event. Additionally, it demonstrated its strategic role as a leader in attracting investments to the country, with the endorsement of the National Council of Fertilizers and Plant Nutrition (Confert), alongside its sectoral partner, Sinprifert (National Union of Raw Materials Industries for Fertilizers).


The highlight was the launch of the Fertilizer Sector Investment Attraction Program, Invest in Brazil Fertilizers, during the event. The initiative combines intelligence for investors to access the Brazilian market and identifies state project portfolios that can be offered to investors.


"Instead of acting on a case-by-case basis in investor relations, event by event, what we are doing now is making ApexBrasil a leader, together with Sinprifert, in a global and long-term strategic effort," emphasized Carlos Padilla, coordinator of ApexBrasil's Investment Management, who led the Agency's stand in Rio.


For this reason, Padilla explained, ApexBrasil's work following Fertilizer Latino Americano 2025 "takes on a new shape, reaching another level, more relevant and strategic." It is no coincidence that the team spent these days meeting in dozens of private appointments and discussions with different partners, including companies from around the world with traditions in fertilizer production.


From reviving existing projects, such as Petrobras' fertilizer plants, to investors wanting to explore or present new technological or productive partnership possibilities, the work facilitated contact with public and private institutions like the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA), the federal backbone of Brazilian agribusiness, crucial for the success of this work.


Jose Polidoro.jpeg"This is a sector that requires very high investments, and we have excellent projects that just need to be better known. At this major event, the world's largest companies in the sector came here to closely examine Brazil's moment. And nobody is better than ApexBrasil to make this strategic, no longer isolated, global connection. The change in ApexBrasil's positioning, which evolved under the current government, is crucial, and the government has high expectations for investment attraction," noted José Polidoro, Strategic Program Advisor at MAPA. "ApexBrasil is changing Brazil's image in agribusiness production chains and driving this essential sector."


"An event of this scale globally is important to give visibility to a state policy and to fulfill, with ApexBrasil's support, the National Fertilizer Plan (PNF), bringing security for foreign investments to come," explained Bernardo Silva, president of Sinprifert, who represents the sector in Brazil and was impressed by the strong foreign attendance at the event.


In his lecture on January 27, titled "The industry's strategic plan to increase national fertilizer production in Brazil and South America," he recalled that according to government planning and to fulfill the PNF, it would be necessary to quintuple national fertilizer production by 2050, with global investments of R$200 billion in installed production capacity.


Paulo Cesar Teixeira, coordinator of Rede Fértil Brasil, a researcher at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), and representative at Fertilizer Latino Americano, added, "We have an enormous history of research and development, and we have the conditions to reduce this dependency. But academia alone is not enough. In government as a whole, it is fundamental to establish more partnerships and reduce our tax, technological, and bureaucratic barriers that drive investors away."


Northern Brazil is a Strategic Area


APEXBRASIL.jpegApexBrasil assisted several companies at the Rio de Janeiro event to encourage investments in the country, including Kemapco, Casale, Atome, NODRAL, RNZ Group, Atlas Agro, Haifa Group, Stamicarbon, Tervalis, and American Critical Minerals, which participated in high-level meetings at the Agency's stand.


"In Amazonas, we have an enormous capacity to receive foreign investments and huge phosphate potential in the south of the state. It's the opportune moment for investments. ApexBrasil has this expertise in investment attraction and puts us in a prime position to contact investors," summarized Ronney Peixoto, State Secretary of Energy, Mining and Gas of Amazonas, one of the three states present at the event.


"We are a fundamental player in the sector. We have been talking with ApexBrasil, who helps us connect with foreign industries and investors. We aim for food security in Brazil and the world, and that is why we work in the agribusiness chain, our specialty," summarized the president of Potássio do Brasil, Adriano Espeschit, a subsidiary of Canadian company Brazil Potash, one of ApexBrasil's main interlocutors at the event, specializing in potassium mining, where import dependency reaches 98%.


It is one of the companies that already has the Amazon and the North of the country as its investment focus. Based in Toronto, Canada, and Brazil, Potash has an office in Manaus, plus a branch in Autazes, a massive world-class potassium chloride mine in the Amazon basin subsoil, a raw material for fertilizers.


The Autazes project - already licensed and in the implementation phase - is expected to produce potassium in the Amazon within five years and is considered a milestone for the country. The Potássio Autazes project, with an estimated investment of US$2.5 billion, will make the company Brazil's largest potassium producer, potentially reaching 2.2 million tons per year, while the consumption is around 14 million, which alone would reduce product imports by 20%. In the long term, it is possible to triple this production, reducing imports by around 50%.


Israel to Produce Fertilizers in Brazil


Israeli company Haifa, founded in the 1960s and specialized in potassium nitrate production, is one of the most innovative in the sector. It has recognized, especially in the last ten years, the importance of having a physical presence in Brazil. Therefore, it is already preparing its first project in the country: a manufacturing facility for highly soluble fertilizers.


According to Giuliana Feldman, Haifa's General Director for South America, investing in the planet's food security is crucial. "We will be manufacturers in Brazil, not merely an export and import establishment in the country," she explained.


"Brazil, like India, are breadbaskets to feed the world, and this can be done more efficiently than other countries have done," she added. Igor Rezende Vilela, Strategic Advisor at the Minas Gerais Integrated Development Institute (Invest Minas), a Minas Gerais Government agency, understands that Haifa's project represents "a major technological disruption for the Brazilian market."


Fertilizer Latino-Americano brings together Latin American fertilizer professionals in Brazil every two years at a crucial moment for the market to network, negotiate, and learn about new trends and opportunities. The event, considered one of the most important in fertilizer discussions, gathered speakers, experts, and stakeholders from more than 60 countries.


Dependency on Fertilizer Imports


In the last two years, fertilizer markets have changed and adapted to new trade flows and were impacted by events such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russia stands out as one of the leading fertilizer suppliers to the Brazilian market. This is currently Brazil's largest import category, with values equivalent to $25 billion in 2022 and $15 billion in 2023. Total fertilizer consumption reached 45 million tons, according to Sinprifert.


As agribusiness is expected to continue boosting Brazil's trade balance surplus, the need for internal fertilizer use and production grows to reduce external dependency, as advocated by the National Fertilizer Plan.


National Fertilizer Plan and Decarbonization


The National Fertilizer Plan 2023-2050, revised and updated in 2023 by the National Council of Fertilizers and Plant Nutrition (Confert), sets ambitious goals to overcome these challenges and reduce external product dependency to 50%. Thus, the PNF proposes reaching 2050 with national production capable of meeting between 45% and 50% of internal demand.


To achieve this goal, the Plan envisions reactivating factories, incentivizing new industrial plants, and investing in sustainable nutrient production, among other actions. Confert already lists 67 projects. This is where ApexBrasil and its partners' strategic role comes in for attracting investments without disregarding the need for decarbonization in industrial fertilizer production in Brazil.


At Fertilizer Latino Americano, many debates addressed perspectives for green ammonia, new production technologies, developments in micronutrient and organomineral fertilizers, regenerative agriculture, and, of course, concerns about climate change and global food security. This event opens relevant themes that will be addressed during the year in Brazil until the United Nations Conference on Climate Change 2025, COP30, which will occur in November in Belém, the capital of Pará.


About ApexBrasil


ApexBrasil works to promote Brazilian products and services abroad and attract foreign investments to strategic sectors of the Brazilian economy. To achieve its objectives, the Agency conducts diverse commercial promotion actions aimed at promoting exports and enhancing Brazilian products and services abroad, such as prospective and commercial missions, business rounds, support for Brazilian companies' participation in major international fairs, visits by foreign buyers and opinion makers to learn about the Brazilian productive structure, among other business platforms that also aim to strengthen the Brasil brand. The Agency also works in coordination with public and private actors to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to Brazil, focusing on strategic sectors for developing the competitiveness of Brazilian companies and the country.


(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)

Source: AgroNews

0/1200

More from AgroNewsChange

Hot Topic More

Subscribe Comment

Subscribe 

Subscribe Email: *
Name:
Mobile Number:  

Comment  

0/1200

 

NEWSLETTER

Subscribe Latin America Focus Bi-weekly to send news related to your mailbox